One Was Stubborn

I thought it was my vision.

For some time my wife had been nagging me about glasses, telling me that I ought to get those Brilloscopes that were always being advertised on the three-dimensional color television. But somehow the more I heard “See like a cat and feel like a million with Brilloscopes, the Invisible Optic Aids,” the less inclined I was to get a pair.

And so when I beheld a pair of legs walking toward me all by themselves, I, of course, concluded that it was my vision. In fact, for some days things had been getting slightly misty and the mist was deepening. But to see a pair of legs with pants neatly pressed and shoes precisely tied walk up to you and by you and around the corners—well, even I could see that I must give in.

I stepped onto the express conveyer belt and went whizzing off toward the Medical Center, and as I sped along I again received a shock. The great glistening domes of Science Center, usually so plainly seen from all levels of the city save the third trucking tier under the glass subways, were missing one of their number. I supposed, of course, that the Transstellar Express might have swished too close to it on the night before, but I was wrong. For when I diverted my eyes for a moment to avoid being struck by a fat woman’s antigravity cane and then looked through the invisible super-levels at the place where the dome had been, the dome was back in place! I certainly did need glasses!

I was so groggy when I stepped off the conveyer belt and grabbed the scoop which lifted up to the medical department level that I didn’t even see a crazy college student swing off Level 20 in his antique Airable Swishabout—one of those things with signs over the dents saying, “Eve, Here’s Your Atom,” and “Ten Tubes All Disintegrating,” and “Hey, Babe, didn’t we meet on Mars?” You know the menace. Well, one of those blasted straight at me and I didn’t even have time to duck—and I probably couldn’t have anyway, thanks to my rheumatism.

And if I had been startled before, I was prostrate now. That Swishabout rattled to the right and left and above and below and was gone. I’d passed all the way through it!

I was almost scared to let go of the bucket and step out on the Eye Level for fear the invisible walk was not only invisible but also not there!

Somehow I hauled myself up to the sorting psycher while the beam calculators sized me up and then, when the flasher had blinked “Dr. Flerry” as its decision for me, I managed to sink down on the sofa which whisked me into his office.

The nurse smiled pleasantly and said, “Nervous disability is quite easy to cor